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Early Popular Music
As I prepare for my Popular Music course this coming spring, I see in my lecture notes that I occasionally triangulate pop music and Early Music. By “Early” I don’t mean the dawn of rock and roll in...
View ArticleMusic Appreciation 2.0
I recently spent umpteen hours in front of a video screen, viewing three television series devoted to the understanding (and then appreciation) of music. But, rather than regretting the down time, I...
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What am I listening to right now?
Students in my 2012 summer music class, Introduction to the Study of Popular Music, will soon be gathering in the School of Music building right about the time the rhododendrons are in bloom, or should...
View ArticlePre-Reading and Pre-Viewing for the 2012 Summer Class
The count-down begins in earnest for M403J, Introduction to the Study of Popular Music, the 2012 edition, so you may be asking yourself if there is something you can do before the first class?...
View ArticleThe Popular Music Textbook Dilemma
If you look back at my earlier entry with virtually the same title, The World Music Textbook Dilemma, you will read my basic concerns which I will fine-tune here. Like my M328 class, I have not been...
View ArticleTeaching at a University
Introduction The beginning of every semester brings to my mind, yet again, the dilemma of teaching at a university in the 21st century. Along with all my notes, readings, and online preparations, I...
View ArticleTriangulation and Music
Why study ethnomusicology and popular music? As music students approach their third year of undergraduate studies, they glance at the subject offerings and spot two courses devoted to music of the...
View ArticleChristmas, Music, Misrule
One of my musical interests at Christmas time is the performance of Christmas music played and sung by musicians in the great urban outdoors. My role model is the Salvation Army’s brass band culture. I...
View ArticleMerry Kitschmas
As I mentioned in an earlier posting, editors Sheila Whiteley and Brian Miller have produced thought-provoking collections of essays that revel in the myriad contradictions of Christmas in our global...
View ArticleBelly Dancing Men
Lately I’ve rekindled my interest in frame drums. My first encounter was with the tambourine – a frame drum with some added tonal colour provided by miniature cymbals called jingles. Back then, I had...
View ArticleM328C World Music, the 2013 version
Good news. The university has scheduled one of my courses for May-June of 2013. Last summer, they chose my Popular Music course (M403J); this year they’ve opted for my version of the study of World...
View ArticleAre Live Lectures Becoming Redundant?
Online versus conventional lectures; that is the question (not asked by Hamlet). The recent issue of UBC Reports (January 2, 2013) has several senior administrators musing about the future of...
View ArticleMalanka! Not. Or maybe so.
It’s that time of year again, when Ukrainians in the homeland and the Canadian prairies celebrate their culture by mounting a party called malanka. I was reminded of this occasion when I watched a...
View ArticleA Canadian Music Ensemble
UBC is blessed with some first rate ethnic music ensembles that perform music from Sub-Saharan Africa, Korea, Bali and China, all directed by stellar music directors that are at the top of their game....
View ArticleEthnomusicology at Home
As I continue “doing ethnomusicology at home” my most recent engagement is within a Western Art Music ensemble, a surprising domain for a World Music researcher. The ensemble is a British brass band...
View ArticleLearning to be an amateur
Although I was a professional musician who played the flute in a former life, I was flung into the world of the amateur, and a beginner at that, thanks to my anglomania, and my new ambition to play the...
View ArticleRe-enactment. Boon or bust?
There have been several times in my life when I decided that re-enacting the original context of a music composition’s performance was an exciting and viable option. I once called it Theatre of Music...
View ArticleThe Sociomusicology of an RCM Music Exam
Many students of mine have arrived at the School of Music via the well-travelled road of the Royal Conservatory of Music examination system. And almost all of them trod down this path as youthful...
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Fife and Drum: a different ethnomusicology ensemble
One of the intense pleasures of attending a music school in a large university is the opportunity to actually play music from other cultures, thanks to a department of ethnomusicology. The most common...
View ArticleEthnomusicology in the band room
One of the ethnomusicologists I follow closely is David G. Hebert, currently a faculty member at Bergen University of College in Norway, but in fact, born and raised in Seattle. His specialty is the...
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